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My name is Jerome Jimenez, and I am your new Customer Success Manager at Collabspot. Pleased to meet you virtually. Though most of the time we will be interacting mostly through email or through phone, I thought that it would be best to introduce myself by showing you how you should view our relationship- by going through some of the ways I will be engaging with you, and how you would expect to be engaged by someone like me. After all, we are embarking on this journey together to make you, and ultimately, your customers successful. With my addition to Collabspot, you can ensure that I will work with you every step of the way to make sure that your journey with the product is as seamless as possible.

Why are we so Focused on Customer Engagement?

There is a shift in control that hapened a few years ago, which has made organizations rehtink their strategy when it comes to engaging with clients. We have been flipped on our heads, as we are no longer selling products- we are selling TRUST. Trust is now the currency of business, and if we don't build around that, if we do not have a strategy to instill trust in our brands, our businesses may very well dwindle. My goal here at Collabspot is to have a Customer-centric organization, one that genuinely cares about our customers in order to build trust around the community. In order to do that, I need to interact with you, understand how your business works, and how that coincides to how you're using Collabspot.

How We’ll Work Towards Building a Customer-Centric Organization

You already know that your customers are the lifeblood of your business. Without them, what will your business hinge on to continue operations? Here are 5 ideas on how to engage with your customers:

Genuinely Interact with Them, as You Would a Normal Human Being.

I'd like to give an example on Wendy's Twitter Page:

This is hilarious on all levels, and doesn't really take a genius to do this. However, it does take a certain level of human understanding to build out responses such as this. You also need to take into consideration on the type of industry you're in, or the type of culture you want your company to be perceived. Tailor your conversatrions to your target market, to the person you're talking to, and how the organization markets itself, add a little human touch or your own uniqueness, and I think you've got a head start in building great customer conversations.

2. Always, Always, Always Listen to Your customers.

No matter how much you think it's important for the customer to listen to you, it's even more important to just lend an ear to your customer. Their feedback is VERYIMPORTANT. It's imperative that you take notes on how you can structure their feedback and how that can lead to dynamic changes within the organization. There are different ways to listen to your customers, and it's not just limited to personal conversations. You can listen to them through:

Social Media

Surveys

Customer Forums

Customer Service

Focus Groups

Blogs

Email, etc.

The more you listen to your customers, the more you will know how you can improve your business. The more your customers give you good, honest feedback, the more you know they are really using your solution. Carefully listen to that feedback, and you will know who your most valuable customers are.

3. Communication is a Two-Way Street

What's the point of listening to your customers if you're not going to act on the feedback they provided? You need to make them understand that you value their feedback and that you truly value them as a trusted business partner. With that said, take action. Let your organization know what your customers feel about the product, and how you can tailor-fit their feedback to each and every individual need. The software business can now be relatable to how Wendy's or McDonald's does business: through value meals or ala-carte. If you truly listened to your customers, you will know the type of services they will need during the sales cycle. What's more, when you have a developed a deep understanding of them, it'll be a great time to ask "Do you want some fries with that?" Food for thought.

4. Admit Your Mistakes- Quickly

Mistakes are a part of business, and your customers understand that. Sure, they'll be mad. Sure, they'll threaten to cancel subscription, but if you don't own to your mistakes and tell your client right away, you're going to make them vulnerable, and that mistake can multiply and explode right on their faces. That's something we want to avoid at all costs. We want to mitigate risks as much as possible, and we must all learn to brush this off and move on. Best of all, you learn from those mistakes as to not commit them again in the future. Honest, open communication with your client is what's going to separate one-tiome clients to repetitive, recurring business.

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5. Never Forget to Smile

Smiling is something we all take for granted. It has a positive effect on your mood and can make the people around you feel better. Smiling also allows you to become more approachable, and what better way to gain the trust of a client than a genuine, big-ol smile? Smiling is contagiois, and can decrease the stress levels of you and your clients. A smile can even be felt through a telephone conversation, so be sure to make it a positive habit when you're with clients. With that said, you must also take precaution when NOT to smile. I once attended a review with a client, where the client was furious as to why the key milestones were not met. My sales partner at the time was smiling the whole time, which made my client flare up even more- and you can literally see his eyes bulging as he said in a very menacing voice "This is NOT a laughing matter." I wanted to crawl under the desk and quietly exit the room. Yikes.

5.5 Show Kindness

As an addition to this, please be kind to your clients. A simple "Thank you" and shower of appreciation goes a long way. Many customers stay with their vendors simply because of the positive experience they had. There's a restaurant my family and I frequently go to because of their excellent and friendly staff. On top of that, the food was really amazing, which added a whole other level of experience. A friend of ours recommended another restaurant of the same degree, and we obliged to try it out. As it turned out, the staff were horrible, they treated us like we were second-rate customers because there were only four of us, as opposed to the huge table composed of 15-20 guests. Our orders came 45 minutes later, and my family was famished. Long story short, we are never going back to that place again. Ever.

There you have it. I hope this helps you along the way. Hey, I know we're complete strangers now, but isn't that how relationships start? As we progress along, I want to make sure that your experience with the product is what you expected, and then some. I just to make this clear: We are in this together. if you find anything remotely wrong with the product, please let me know. If you are experiencing come technical issues, please let me know. If you have any suggestions that would make your experiences even better, please let me know. If you love our product, and can't wait to tell your friends how awesome it is, then by all means, please let me know, and perhaps we can share your story in the Collabspot or SugarCRM community.